You Are Getting Sleepy

What's the worst thing that can happen to you if you undergo
hypnosis? For Kevin Bacon's character in the movie Stir of Echoes,
hypnosis helps uncover some dark and gruesome secrets that border
on, well, fiction. But in real life, inducing a trance is more
likely to induce honesty, which comes in handy when you're trying
to discern consumer attitudes.

"Hypnosis is nothing more than a state of relaxation, which
lowers people's inhibitions - their tendency to filter their
thoughts," says Stuart Grau, director of brand planning at New York
ad agency Avrett, Free & Ginsberg. "It's not voodoo." How does
he know? Grau hired Hal Goldberg, a trained hypnotist and market
researcher, to conduct mesmerizing focus groups to assess two new
Dewar's campaigns.

Goldberg, whose one-man shop, Qualitative and Quantitative
Research, is based in Irvine, California, has more than three
decades of experience working with focus groups. Five years ago, he
decided to pair his research skills with his interest in hypnotism,
a combination he admits is a bit unusual. According to the National
Guild of Hypnotists, the majority of the 7,000 licensed hypnotists
worldwide use their skills for medical purposes - to help people
curb pain, smoking, anxiety and the like - or to help solve
crimes.

But there's nothing wrong with applying hypnotism to market
research, says Goldberg, in answer to critics who might find it
unseemly to use the discipline to help sell packaged goods. If
anything, his business seeks to address what he and other
researchers call the "over-commercialization" of focus groups.
"People lie or exaggerate for all sorts of reasons," says Goldberg.
"The only way to access the subconscious is through hypnosis."

Dewar's focus group participants were all people in their late
20s who had adopted scotch as a drink in the previous year. A unit
of Bacardi-Martini USA, Dewar's is aiming for a target demographic
of 25-to-34-year-olds, according to Toby Dunn, group director at
Avrett, Free & Ginsberg. Each was asked about their first
scotch experience (usually on the sly, in childhood) and how they
came to drink it later on. Under hypnosis, respondents confessed
that they want to be cool and that drinking scotch with friends is
one way to feel that way. Some said they feel like they've grown up
or become members of a different club now that they drink Dewar's,
even though it's perceived as a drink for oldsters.

The agency then used the "friends as an extended family" concept
to advance the positioning of Dewar's print and outdoor ads,
especially the image portion of the $20 million campaign that touts
Dewar's drinkers as passionate risk-takers. Hence the tagline
"They're Dewars," accompanied by a humorous shot of the makers of
The Blair Witch Project. The agency has also updated the image of
the brand, embodied by a Highlander in tartans. In an effort to
make the kilted Scotsman appeal to a younger crowd, the agency has
put him in comical poses, either ironing his kilt or, in the latest
execution for the holidays, riding a camel.